Does anyone have an index of which seat bracket parts for Hale and Kilburn seat backs will fit particular Hale and Kilburn seat frames? Any help is welcome.

We have seats that accept the Hale and Kilburn 197 seat bracket pattern such as shown below. The backside of the castings show 197-A-3 (steel frame seat backs) and 197-A-5 (wood frame seat backs). Yes, the width of the brackets is larger for the steel frame seat by about 1 inch or so.

The 197-A-5 seat bracket (right side of images) has extra knob features to locate the bracket on the wood seat back frame and also has a well defined channel to capture the upright moving "blades" that extend up from the walkover seat frame to support and allow the walkover action.

The Hale and Kilburn 197 model (shown in picture in my own classified posting, see link below) has a distinct wedge opening (or recess) at the base to accept the similar "wedge" feature on the seat "blades" (the upright narrow steel blades) which likely limits how far down the seat back can travel and provides some additional strength. The angled enlarged opening near the base of the bracket is hard to see but it tapers out ~1/2 inch. There are other Hale and Kilburn seat brackets (possibly older but unsure) that don't have this "wedge" feature in the seat bracket and these seat backs will jam on the 197 seats resulting in the seat back stopping 4-6" above the seat bottom cushion.

The patent dates seem to imply that these bracket designs were developed in the ~1900 to 1910 time period.

The brackets also appear to have a rounded opening that matches a similar radius on the upright blades.

This is an offshoot of my own topic http://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=47583. You can see an older Hale and Kilburn model 197 from a catalog at that link.

I have seen some pictures with the Hale and Kilburn brackets numbered 85-51 that appear to have the "wedge" recess and the channel to hold the seat blades, but it is unclear if they will fit the H&K model 197 seat blades. There are also other model numbers such as 73, 79 but I don't know if they will fit the 197 seat walkover mechanism blades. I am interested to find out an easy way to identify which of the Hale and Kilburn seat back brackets might work on a wood frame seat back or in other words could replace the 197-A-5 if we can't locate enough of the 197-A-5 brackets.

FYI: I believe the diamond and the dimples were to track which master pattern was used in a particular casting for quality control or maybe some other similar purpose.


Finally, the question: does anyone have an index, catalog, or knowledge of which of the seat back brackets will work on the Hale and Kilburn model 197 seat?

If so could you provide an indication of which part numbers would work?

Thank You